At two separate seminars with the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation on Friday, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) urged the US government to remain neutral on Taiwan.
Washington should be active in ushering in peace talks across the Strait instead of “allowing the Taiwanese government to slide further towards a pro-independence mindset and potentially turning Taiwan into a second Ukraine,” he said.
Ma cited Oriana Skylar Mastro’s article This is what America is getting wrong about China and Taiwan, carried by the New York Times on Monday, which said political neutrality for Washington would best observe US interests and that Washington should reiterate its standing US policy that only both sides of the Taiwan Strait can resolve their political differences.
Photo courtesy of Ma Ying-jeou’s office
The US should encourage the Taiwanese government to resume dialogue with Beijing on a mutually accepted political foundation, “which is the ‘1992 consensus.’” which is also supported by the Republic of China’s (ROC) Constitution, Ma said.
The so-called “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted to making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Ma urged the US to desist from “weaponizing” Taiwan, such as certain comments about blowing up the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which US experts said was the opinion of specific individuals and was not highly possible nor necessary.
His experiences in visiting China this March, and the return visit from Chinese high schools this July, bolstered his faith in the eventual peaceful political dialogue across the Strait, Ma said.
When asked about President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration stating that China has “preconditions” for dialogue, Ma said that the concept of “preconditions” was in error, but that he disagreed with the Tsai administration’s reasoning.
The Tsai administration erroneously interprets “one China” as a precondition, but it is simply because it refused to acknowledge that the ROC Constitution is a “one China” constitution, referring specifically to the ROC, he said.
The Tsai administration is not initiating dialogue with China “maybe because they feel that they just have to rely on the US for such dialogue,” Ma said, adding that this was not right.
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